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September 25, 2011 – Day 55 of Morgan’s Stalking – We have a detective and a case number…almost!

We make plans to all go to Glenwood Springs, and do some good old fashioned shopping. Morgan has a list of things she needs, and it promises to be a great little get away. Steve goes out to clean my car, and finds all kinds of Morgan’s friend’s stuff piled up in the back. He comes in to tell Morgan, and this prompts her to send a text to her friend Calder, “Dude… You’ve got to stop leaving your **** everywhere.” Problem solved! If only everything were so simple.

After a successful day of shopping we come home, and I get a call from our new detective that has been assigned to Morgan’s felony stalking case, Garfield County Sheriff Detective Rob Glassmire, he introduces himself and we make plans for him to stop by the house the following evening, he said he works Sunday – Wednesday, and times will vary because of his work load, so he will usually be in the later part of the day. We’ll go over the case in detail when he comes and he wants me to get together what we have so far. Then we can go over it all while he’s at the house.

I hang up and relish the feeling for a moment, a detective, for our case. We’ve never had a detective before, because we have never needed one. I instantly thought that my information so far was lacking, that I had to spend the rest of the evening updating and organizing. Steve tries to assure me that what we have will completely overwhelm the detective. I don’t agree, and sit myself down to the task.

Before we go to sleep Morgan explains that she was way too on edge the other night when she rang the bell, and we both came running that she could not go back to sleep for hours, waiting for a repeat that never happened. She wants to avoid that. We compromise on her agreeing to send me a text when it happens and only use the alarm button in an emergency. I will hear the text come through and then see the text, and we will have a record that is time and date stamped to give the detective. It will all work out.

At 10:45 pm the motion alarm in the back goes off. We think it could be anything (dog, deer, rabbit), and we wait to see. Two minutes later I got a phone text from Morgan that a rock just hit her window. Steve curses, and we both get up to review the cameras again. And again there is nothing caught on camera. The review takes us about an hour and we go back to sleep at midnight.

There was a clear pattern developing – it seemed like a quick hit and run. I could almost picture him coming over the berm, setting of the motion detector, and minutes later being at Morgan’s window. But he was not invisible, and how this was happening without anything showing up on cameras had to be answered. Much later when we find out how he was doing it things became clear – the motion alarm in the back of the house was the tip off…

At that time we thought the detective would know what was going on – he had to know…again, we were wrong.

This was the day that the detective called us for the first time to discuss how Morgan’s case has just become a felony stalking case, and that he will be the lead detective on her case. Up until then they considered misdemeanor trespassing – why it took this long or what the reason was that changed it into a felony stalking case we never fully understood, but it sounded like our local LE had a certain amount of incident reports that had to come in to them before they considered it felony stalking.

In Colorado, stalking is defined as harassing someone (i.e., following, contacting, or watching another person) in a way that causes them to feel fearful (state statute C.R.S. 18-9-111). A first time offense is considered a Class 5 Felony, and a Class 4 Felony when there is a restraining order or injunction already in place.

In February 2012 (2 months after Morgan was killed) a bill that would strengthen Colorado’s stalking laws passed the state House. The bill requires automatic restraining orders and a court appearance before a stalking suspect is released from jail. In Morgan’s case no one had yet been arrested so this did not help her, but it does help in situations where someone has been arrested and incarcerated.

The bill was prompted by the death of Vonnie Flores in Leadville. She was shot to death by a neighbor who’d been stalking her for five years.

Could the rock noise maybe have been him shooting something like an air soft gun out of view of the cameras? You probably would have noticed the plastic pellets though, but just trying to think of how he could do that and not be seen at the window. I think you said one of the cameras showed Morgan’s window is why I’m thinking it wasn’t him reaching down from the roof?

Steve thought the same thing and we told the Sheriff’s his idea – they didn’t think that’s what it was but we really don’t know…it could have been a combination of different things that were being used. We know for a fact now the stalker was on the roof at times, but there could have been other times that an air soft gun was used.

I would encourage you to make the sorority aware of Morgan’s story. We are a pretty tight-knit group. It could end up saving someone’s life, or in the very least making everyone aware of Morgan’s story.

You and your family are so inspirational. I know justice will come for Morgan!

I am not sure how he evaded your cameras, but he was most definitely inside your house at some point. Your locks didn’t just break. At least, I don’t believe that for one minute. I think that this person had to have entered your home, on more than one occasion. I think that he was on your roof, as well as your neighbors. He had to have been. I bet once Steve went back into the house each time he was on the roof waiting to get down. This story intrigues me, and infuriates me all at the same time. To have someone this bold, calculating and no fear of law enforcement, you’re right, he will do this again. I also whole hearted believe that he found the medication in her room and used it to make it seem like a suicide. I believe that with all of my heart. I wish they would reopen the case oneday. I really do.

Thanks Jenna I believe the same things that you just said, and I know he is a predator that uses people to help him, implicates them so they can turn on him. He is extremely dangerous and has done this before and will do it again. He is a sociopath, he thinks he is superior than everyone, because they are weak, because they are flawed…they have feelings – he has people that also protect him (like family members), and unless an investigation is done, by an agency other than Garfield County, unfortunately the world will be hearing from him again very soon.

What I can’t believe is, that there might be people that actually helped him. Helped him stalk, help him get away with it. It sickens me to no end. It really does. I only recently became aware of your blog last week. I live on the East Coast and hadn’t been made aware of it until someone shared your blog link on Facebook. I started from the beginning and was up until almost 1 am (way past my bedtime) reading. I was so unbelievably unnerved by the end, and totally spooked. It takes a lot to spook me, too. I cannot imagine what you, Morgan and Steve went through in those horrendous four months. Your family has been added to my daily prayers. I pray that you get justice for Morgan’s murder. I just can’t freaking believe that they closed the case. That is the part that actually infuriates me the most.

Jenna you and me both…I have to keep telling myself on a daily basis to come from love and not anger, but it is really hard sometimes not to get angry that LE closed her case. Because of what they have done to Morgan, and continue to do to Morgan by covering up the truth, Steve and I have to keep going through it on a daily basis in order to keep fighting for justice. This is because we will not give up until it is investigated, and the truth comes out. This is the hardest part…it’s like having to relive it over, and over again – we will not have peace until it is taken over, and investigated.

If he/she was using a telescoping pointer , there wouldn’t be any rocks under the window….he was reaching down with the pointer from the roof and tapping the window? Though I’m NOT convinced it was always a “he.”. I have this gut feeling about ?.. that I can’t describe! JMO

I think the stalker was in your house, for sure. And I think (s)he was in there far more often than you may suspect. I’ve seen a lot of good theories suggested for how (s)he may have gained entry (key pad, HOA key, sliding glass door, etc.)

What I think may have happened is that once the stalker figured out how to get into your home (probably pretty early on), (s)he used that to always stay one step ahead of you guys. They could have read your notes, or inspected your recent purchases for instance.

They also could have checked out your camera system, and figured out where the blind spots were. Perhaps they even erased video of them approaching your house (while you guys were out, so you’d have no idea to even look for such video). How long did the system retain the recordings for? Did it record over prior footage? Did you have it turned off during certain parts of the day? If the stalker knew where the blind spots were, they could have approached your house without being picked up by the cameras.

If that is true then we were in trouble – there were 6 cameras going 24 7 and they still didn’t catch everything. Our next door neighbor left something on our porch one day and it never showed him coming or going so I was really upset! The cameras did record over themselves but if we did see something we saved it. we actually have to review more footage still. If they came in our house and saw the monitor with all the cameras and they views they were taking then they would have know how to beat the cameras. Steve tried to turn them slightly every once in a while to catch a little different view but you really couldn’t turn them much.

Hi Toni, I wonder what law enforcement and the coroner were so afraid of, that they didn’t do the right thing and re-open Morgan’s case? It appears that they were afraid of something, whether it was their mistakes being found out, or their lies and deceit, or that they were covering up for someone, it makes you wonder. I don’t understand their anger and uncooperative attitudes. It just boggles the mind and makes no sense at all. Is there no agency who investigates the police and prosecutors and coroners and other people in authority if they are not doing their jobs properly? It’s such a travesty!

Off topic, but was Morgan a victim of any other abuse in her life? I have a sleep disorder that makes me hear noises that don’t exist. Sometimes I hear banging on the wall. Sometimes I hear someone coming up the stairs. One time I felt a long fingered, long fingernail delicately playing with my hair and I thought it was a demon. I began screaming.

I’m not saying Morgan didn’t hear things, but at the same time, hypervigilance is so real, especially in victims/survivors!

Thanks for asking Jess – no, she was not and she was not the only one that heard the tapping/banging…I did as well as her sister and 2 other friends. She also saw him following her in the car…there were multi sitings and photos caught on camera, footprints in the dirt and snow, etc. Many pieces of evidence of the stalking and the sheriffs even had him in the police report as the suspect and put Morgan’s case number on his Global Criminal Record. We would have all loved to find out that it was just normal noises but sadly it was not and Morgan lost her life because of it.